In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Haslemere like this:
HASLEMERE, a decayed town and a parish in Hambledon district, Surrey. The town stands on the Guildford and New Portsmouth railway, amid pleasant environs of hill and vale, 9 miles SSW of Godalming; is said to have succeeded an older and largcr town, situated on the side of an adjacent hill, and destroyed by the Danes; was a borough by prescription, and chartered by Queen Elizabeth; sent two members to parliament, till disfranchised by the act of 1832; was the scene of many expensive and violeiit election coiitests, till its interests became united in the Ear.l of Lonsdale; has now a post office‡ under Liphook, a railway station, two inns, a handsome church, an Independent chapel, a literary and scientific institution, and a national school; and is a good centre for tourists to explore the romantic region in the triangle between it, Midhurst, and Petersfield. ...
A weekly market is held on Tuesday; fairs for cattle are held on 13 May and 26 Sept.; articles of turnery are manufactured; and paper mills are in the neighbourhood. An enormous beech tree, about 18 feet in girth at 5 feet from the ground, is 1 ½ mile to the N; and the remarkable depression in the sand, called the Devil's Punchbowl, and emitting an afflnent of the Wey, is 2¼ iniles to the NNW. -The parish coinprises 1,877 acres. Real property, £2, 990. Pop., 952. Houses, 187. The property is subdivided. The manor belonged to the Mores, and passed to the Lowthers. The living is a p. curacy, annexed to the rectory of Chiddingfold, in the diocese of Winchester.
Haslemere through time
Haslemere is now part of Waverley district. Click here for graphs and data of how Waverley has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Haslemere itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Haslemere, in Waverley and Surrey | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/1238
Date accessed: 23rd April 2024
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